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bab5_solar

The Third Degree Burner is based on the shell of our previous vehicle, the Afterburner II. The chassis, suspension, drive train, electrical systems, and telemetry have all been completely rebuilt to accomidate the new SunRayce rule requiring 4 wheels (the Afterburner II has 3 wheels). The only components remaining from the Afterburner II are the front fairings (aerodynamic wheel guards) and the top portion of the shell.

While much has been rebuilt, the design (with the exception of the 4th wheel) looks extremely similar to the Afterburner II's. The chassis is a carbon-honeycomb box structure. The suspension combines Risse Racing Technology shocks with custom-designed aluminum members. The aerodynamic shell is molded from kevlar and epoxy, in order to be light and rigid while providing a safe, energy-absorbent structure around the driver. The solar cells are made by ASE America and are 14.5 % efficient. They are split up into modules of 4x7 cells on average, each module being entirely sealed inside a rigid resin and glass matrix.

The electrical system combines New Generation Motor Corp's hub motor with GB Battery's Nickel-Metal-Hydride cells, along with the solar array and some accessories (turn signals, horn, telemetry, etc.). The entire combination is extremely efficient, enabling the car to drive 45 mi/hr on the power of a single hair dryer.

solar-panel

Extreme precision is required when removing coatings and slicing solar cells. This dual-head unit combines two galvanometers that are moving simultaneously on the gantry, while the table underneath moves. All motion is completed using lead screws.

lawn-solar-power

purchased a 45W Solar Panel Kit from Harbor Freight a couple weeks ago (three 15W solar panels and a cheapie charge controller for $199), but had problems with the controller right off the bat. I messed around with it for a couple of days before deciding that it was junk and started checking around for a better one. On the advice of some friends and a silver-tongued tech rep at Xantrex, I purchased a Xantrex C40 solar controller on eBay for $112. This is about twice what I had wanted to pay and a bit of overkill for my immediate application, but since I have a couple more solar electric projects in mind and wanted to keep my options open, I opted for the C40 because it seemed to have plenty of power (40 amps) and be the ultimate in flexibility.

solarpowered-chair

A group at Southern Taiwan University of Technology have created the world's first solar-powered wheelchair (which may or may not be true). Allegedly the thing runs entirely off solar energy and needs no plugging in. It was designed to be gentler on the environment and prevent people from being stuck out in the rain because their traditional electric battery ran out. So apparently it runs on rain too and not just sun. Because most of the time it's raining out there isn't much sun. What can I say, I'm a keen observer. But you know what there is a lot of when it rains? Worms. That's because when rain mixes with dirt it makes worms. It's a chemical reaction or something.

About tanks, and why they're a necessity in modern ground forces

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I intended to write about this topic (What's a tank good for, and does its end near?) for a while. A reply written by me on a forum turned out to be so long and exhaustive that it's really what I had planned for the blog. Lazy as I am, I'll copy it.

[...] however my confusion remains. What is/ where is the utility and value of the MBT?

The Main Battle Tank is a vehicle that was developed for intentional use in line-of-sight combat. its crew is capable of justifying the investment into the tank team and the hardware by exploiting the degree of protection offered by the tank for the critical mass of survivability on the battlefield.

This critical mass does not include invulnerability, but rather vastly reduced or entirely negated effectiveness of most threat weapons. The tank is still vulnerable to few threat weapons - crew training and tank tactics are required to counter these threats for additional survivability on the mission.

The high survivability in comparison to "light" forces (especially on open ground) in combination with the internal combustion engine's power offer a high mobility (with a heavyweight weaponry and ammunition) on the battlefield.

This high practical mobility in face of many threats can be exploited by large unit and formation tactics to great effect.

Tanks can also be used with assault gun tactics; in this case they serve on the offence as fire support platforms with weapons and ammunitions heavier than practical for dismounted troops.

The best targets for a tank are those which justify the expenditure of scarce ammunition and the risk involved. Hostile main battle tanks are sometimes in this category, sometimes not. It depends on the other forces' ability to deal with them (does your army have enough effective threats against hostile tanks?).

(This ability was in doubt since 1940. Anti-tank guns were largely immobile, dedicated tank destroyers/Jagdpanzer were a kind of tank themselves, infantry and engineer anti-tank munitions were very rarely able to withstand concentrated breakthrough attempts.

The problem continued during the Cold War when shaped charge-based weapons were able to penetrate tanks mostly with unpredictable effect. Their employment either required vicinity (and weighed down the dismounted troops) or depended on missile guidances and long flight times - both offering countermeasure opportunities to the enemy.

In short; there was little trust in the non-tank-based anti-tank capabilities.)

 

[End of forum reply]

Positions such as "it's necessary for Blitzkrieg" or "it's the best anti-tank weapon" fall short of really explaining the military-technical phenomenon of the tank. Armoured combat vehicles (not necessarily only main battle tanks) fill a niche for which there's no satisfactory substitute. That's why they don't go away.

Some tank designs can prove to be unsatisfactory - especially if they don't reach the critical mass of protection. This explains the demise of the light tank since WW2. Other tanks prove unsatisfactory because they aren't efficient enough or don't fit into the operational doctrine any more (such as short-legged heavy tanks as the T-10).

Finally, there's the main battle tank which actually evolved into a very mobile heavy tank during the 70's when the Leopard 2 was developed.

Quote "Jane's Weapon Systems 1976":

Previously, when a tank had better armour the performance and mobility declined; in designing the Leopard 2 the Germans have reversed this trend, the end result being a superior vehicle.

Leopard 2A4, externally similar to the early Leopard 2 as introduced in '79.

So the tank is here to stay (although in much-reduced quantity as it seems). Countermeasures against it provoke counter-countermeasures. This seems to be unavoidable because modern armies need to fill the armoured combat vehicle's niche and there's simply no satisfactory substitute.

Tanks are dying and becoming obsolete all the time - but there will always appear some (new models or upgrades) that are not obsolete (yet).

Sven Ortmann

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Heliotrope Sun-tracking Solar Panels

Infantry skill horror photo

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(First of all: This is not meant nation-specific.)

This is the infantry skill horror photo of the month:

It's the classic "spray and pray over an obstacle" firing stance, guaranteeing a waste of ammunition.There's no visible laser beam and little hope that he's just illuminating something.

No matter what exactly he does; he seems to believe that hostiles are within rang of his M4 carbine (effective to 150-300 m depending on your expectation of effect on target) and exposes himself very much to hostile fire. He's certainly not using his carbine for aimed fire.

It's even worse:

This disastrous photo made it into the public as an official army photo!

As seen through a night-vision device, U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph P. Khamvongsa returns fire against an insurgent attack on Combat Outpost Badel, Afghanistan, Aug. 25. 2010. Khamvongsa, a forward observer, is assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Gary A. Witte

source, hat tip to Ken White

It's even a NCO, part of the NCO corps that's supposed to keep the individual and small unit skill level of the army high.

For comparison:

Third World untrained ragtag militia fighters, the laughing-stock of infantry-interested internet users.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1702/image0023oo.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7514/image0139tz.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/4034/image0103bt.jpg

I wrote about less extreme failures in a longer post "How to get yourself killed in combat against competent enemies" last year.

Let's hope that this soldier is a lone exception, along with the equally clueless photographer.

Sven Ortmann

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Defending the indefensible: a how-to guide

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I'm apparently still in the mod to dump more or less old articles here (only good ones, of course!).

"Defending the indefensible: a how-to guide"

By Stephen M. Walt

Foreign Policy Blog

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Economist article: "Defence spending in a time of austerity"

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Yet another noteworthy article, this time a recent one:

"Defence spending in a time of austerity

The chronic problem of exorbitantly expensive weapons is becoming acute"

The Economist

(The F-35 may still appear to stay below the trend,

but we'll see how that turns out in the next years.)

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An old quote that still worries me

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Germany has sixteen state and one federal secret service for the monitoring of domestic threats to the constitutional order. The literal translation of these agencies' names would sound like "Constitution protector".

They observe far left parties, far right parties and if I remember correctly also some sects and a bit organised crime. I really only care about the observation of extremist parties, though.

There was (admittedly, back in May) an article about the observation of the Linke, the German socialist party (which has few per cent seats in most parliaments here) and how representatives of that party decry this observation as politically motivated. The protest points at the many laws passed by mainstream party state and federal governments in Germany which didn't pass a check of the respective constitutional courts. Their conclusion; the government parties should be observed, for they violate the constitution.

Well, both sides have their point and honestly, I'd like to see whether we couldn't do without such domestic political spying.

The response of a Bavarian politician in an interview was worrying. He said

„Auch die Forderung, Deutschland solle aus der Nato austreten, beweist, dass die Beobachtung weiter sinnvoll ist.“

("The demand that Germany should leave the Nato also proves that the observation stays meaningful.")

source: Welt.de

Sorry, this is no reason for suspecting anti-constitutional tendencies at all.

The German constitution allows for the membership in such an alliance, but it doesn't demand membership in NATO and NATO is actually disposable for Germany's national security due to the Lisbon Treaty.

Germany is a sovereign country that can leave NATO if it wishes and that would not be the tiniest bit counter-constitutional.

I understand that a very right wing party's (in the German spectrum; in the U.S. political spectrum they would at most be a moderate Republicans) representative prefers a far left wing party to be labelled as possibly counter-constitutionalist, but said left-wing party has a point: The CSU itself has its own issues with the constitution, especially the federal one. The NATO-related point on the other hand was nothing but an embarrassment for its user.

Sven Ortmann

P.S.: 31 posts in a 31-day month. Don't expect me to keep this pace, I had a few free weeks this month.

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Military procurement lessons (re)learned of the last decades

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The series of procurement disasters around the world is long and impressive. Projects lasted far to long (some lasted for three decades), busted their budget badly, produced mediocre or unsafe equipment, didn't meet the forces' real needs, were cancelled after high R&D costs or a combination of several such failures.

It's astonishing that the problem isn't under control, for the lessons were learned and could be implemented:

* No cost-plus contracts that motivate the supplier to bust the original budget.

* Neutral yet competent cost estimates are necessary because pro-program persons and institutions downplay (lie about)  the costs.

* No political decision to stretch a program, for this increases the cost more than lending money for a timely program execution.

* Program managers need be loyal to the taxpayer, not to their project.

* Program managers need to be held responsible for (lack of) performance.

* Research and development need to be separated to keep technology risks down and avoid costly delays.

* The armed service needs to have the (technical) competence to define what it needs.

* Do not force multiple armed services to agree on a "joint" product. At least don't let them believe that they might get a custom development just for their service if there was no joint project. This never works out well.

* Do not allow "upgrades" that come close to the cost of a new product.

* Do not stare at the modernity of the product at the beginning of its operational service. Look at the average modernity over its lifetime. It may be better to replace mediocre products more often than to buy one super product and stick with it for a decade after its obsolescence.

* Small development cost items should be developed with industry capital.

* Off-the shelf products very often meet or exceed the requirements and should be bought.

* The state must not become soft and grant waivers over the original contract (build a tough reputation by enforcing contracts).

* Good contracts and requirements coupled with a tough procurement stance on the same allow for a very lax project supervision that doesn't burden the supplier with paperwork.

* Development requirements creep needs to be mostly avoided, this can be pone by requiring very high-level agreement for every change of requirements during a development project.

* Block special interests.

* Do not develop a product if you need only small quantities and could buy something off the shelf.

* "Perfect is the enemy of good."

* Do not allow your supplier to treat you as a low-priority customer. The taxpayer's interests deserve above-average engineers and priority!

* Do not allow suppliers to misunderstand the defence budget for a subsidy pool.

* Do not develop a major product in cooperation with the French. They will bail out once it becomes irrefutable that the product won't be "100% Made in France".

* Punish low performance of bidders in previous contracts by giving contracts to their competition.

* Do not encourage industrial concentration in mega corporations.

* Break up mega corporations with a competition protection act or by pressuring them to disintegrate into cooperating yet fully independent companies by withholding contracts.

* Last 10% of performance causes 30% of the costs, so KISS (keep it simple, stupid).

* Early development phase fixates 80% of costs (total development, per unit), so get it right soon.

* Think in the long term. Don't muddle through all the time, dare to standardise ideal calibres and vehicle families even if that's in contrast with existing inventories.

* Don't launch a development project if the future availability of funds for full development and production is questionable.

* Do not combine an whole army reform program into a bundle of development projects. Launch a development project for the link instead (communication standard and hardware).

* Do not allow fashions to take over your R&D department. Chase the proponents of fashions that violate common sense out of the ministry.

* Quality is overemphasized in peacetime, quantity is essential in wartime. Do not allow designs that are not affordable in quantity.

* Do not overemphasize platforms over ammunitions, spare parts and training funds.

* Use clear and honest information when informing parliament and public, do not misguide and conceal with 6+ definitions of "cost" or other trickery.

* Avoid one-trick ponies. Versatility is a value in itself.

* Demand and enforce that all public servants and soldiers involved in research or development or procurement projects sign a commitment with a huge contract penalty that keeps them from working directly or indirectly for the industry. Relieve those who reject it.

* Agree with the major opposition party if you're about to launch a development  & procurement project that is despite observing all these rules still expected to last longer than your government coalition.

I wrote this list in 30 minutes without dedicated research, just out of my memory. The lessons learned are really obvious. There are only two explanations for why military procurement efforts are still so often a mess: Incompetence and evil.
It looks to me as if politicians don't do their job, followed by lower ranks mixing incompetence, red tape caused by incompetence and inappropriate interests into the problem.

Any reform needs to be a top-down effort. It's therefore appropriate to hold politicians (especially minister of defence and his highest tier secretaries) responsible for every failure that began when they were in office. Such gross failures should haunt them even after their continued their political career in opposition or another office.

Sven Ortmann

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New Vertical Axis Wind Turbine running with truck's energy!

A new kind of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine have been installed in France, near the A6 runway. It is activated by the truck's movement, wich deploy alot of energy when passing near the turbine. It is still an experimentation, but the France's governement have already invested some funds into this new wind turbine technology.

"Who Says Dumb Artillery Rounds Can’t Kill Armor?"

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Here's another article which I cited very often, a kind of mythbuster piece:

"Who Says Dumb Artillery Rounds Can’t Kill Armor?"

By Major (Retired) George A. Durham

Field Artillery Journal, U.S.Army, Nov/Dec 2002

.(MBT demolished by indirect 155mm HE hit)

Unfree labour phantasies in German politics

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(I'll try to keep my distaste for certain proposals and politicians well enough in check to write this piece objectively. It's a tough challenge, for sure!)

Three debates are raging  in German national politics these days;

(1) Reform of the conscription

(2) A provocative book about migrants in Germany

(3) Extending the operating periods for nuclear power plants

I'll discuss the first one (conscription is about to become suspended apparently).

Conservatives have fought hard for conscription in the 50's. A conscription-based Bundeswehr was part of the governments' Western integration grand strategy. The Bundeswehr was meant to contribute with 12 (of a total of 26) divisions for the defence of Western Europe, in Central Europe,  effectively buying Germany a place as almost normal country in the Western World (in combination European unification and reconciliation and cooperation policies with France) shortly after WW2.

It has apparently turned into a conservative party (CDU/CSU) doctrine and ideology since then, for conservatives are the most fierce defenders of conscription in Germany.

Here's an older blog post about conscription in Germany.

The most extreme and in my opinion despicable attempt to save this kind of unfree labour is a proposal of Lower Saxony's minister of the interior, Schünemann.

Nach den Vorstellungen von [...] Schünemann könnte die Dienstpflicht nicht nur in den Streitkräften, sondern auch in der Bundespolizei oder in Zivilschutzverbänden geleistet werden.

(According to the ideas of [...] Schünemann could the service not only be done in the armed forces, but also in the federal police or in civil defence organisations.)

(source: FAZ)

This would actually be legal under our constitution, but not everything that is allowed needs to be done. The constitution allows a lot, including much that Schünemann and his party would not want at all. In fact, the constitution demands plebiscites - which his party opposes fiercely.

- - - - -

The central problem is habituation.

Humans can get used to the greatest nonsense and damages.

Lean back, relax, free your mind. Imagine a world that hasn't seen conscription for generations. You should really muster your imagination and distance yourself from what you're used to.
No major power threatens our country, in fact no real power does. All is fine.

Suddenly, a politician makes his way into newspaper headlines with the idea to force our youth into unfree labour - underpaid, of course. He also wants to strip those who serve their unfree labour period in the military of some of their free speech rights.

Keep in mind; the military can easily make do without unfree labour, the federal police has never employed unfree labourers and the civil defence organisations don't need that either.

What would our reaction be?

My guess:

* We would draw parallels with the Nazis one year forced labour which they imposed on all young men. Many wouldn't hold back and call him a Nazi.

* We would point out that there's absolutely no necessity for unfree labour.

* We would point out that we want and have a free society, and unnecessary unfree labour is an assault on our civil liberties.

* We would protest as much as necessary to get this irresponsible politician gets fired from office.

Why doesn't this happen?

Simple: Germans got used to the abhorrent concept of conscription. They got used enough to it that many even tolerate it in times of no real threat whatsoever. Myths and lies have been formed and spread around conscription to defend it, the fact that almost only German-speaking country retain conscription in Europe isn't well-represented in news at all.

- - - - -

The German society is increasingly under burden of the long-term consequences of political decisions made in the 50's and 60's (and myths created in that period). This was a period of almost exclusive conservative-liberal governance and thus the conservatives stem against some reforms that would address these problems. Some problems aren't on the to-do list of any party because their roots have become so self-evident and unquestioned that  no party has an internal majority in favour of facing the issue. The export orientation and trade balance surplus is such a problem that has been turned into a strength in federal German mythology.

Conscription on the other hand is a legacy of the early Cold War and the Western integration grand strategy that keeps haunting and hurting us for no other reason than the fact that the party which fought for its introduction fights against its suspension, too.

Sven Ortmann
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Mean maximum pressure paper

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This is a 70's scientific paper on the mean maximum pressure (MMP) index including MMP values for historical vehicles.

http://rapidshare.com/files/414281026/Rowland.rar

It proved to be important in almost all discussions and conversations I've ever had on tracked vehicle soft surface performance.

It's just a technicality, but an interesting one.

(Grab it before Rapidshare deletes it!)

edit: new link (supposed to last longer):
http://hotfile.com/dl/65594578/4cce14e/Rowland2.rar.html

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Schwerpunkt and "Klotzen, nicht kleckern!" - the balance problem

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"Klotzen, nicht Kleckern! (Boot'em, don't spatter'em!) is one of many famous quotes of Guderian.It shows one example of the Clausewitzian concept of Schwerpunkt (concentrating forces to be strong enough for the decisive battle) in the art of war.

This concept is universally known and somewhat understood (there are misunderstandings!). The real challenge isn't to decide on a Schwerpunkt approach, but to balance between the Schwerpunkt and the other remaining forces.

Clausewitz understood that you need to leave a minimum of forces on duty elsewhere even while amassing forces for a decisive battle. World War battles show this very well; Reserves were sent to the location of offensives, but in fact most forces were left to guard other sections of the front line.

I mentioned Guderian, in part because he provides an interesting example for this challenge in procurement. The infantry of WW2 had great difficulties to advance against defenders on open terrain. The obvious solution was armour support, and thanks to a request/idea by von Manstein this armour support was developed in the form of the early assault gun; a normal tank with a casemate gun and high explosive grenades. Guderian opposed this, fearing for the strength of the armoured divisions; assault guns were competing for funds and production capacities.

Guderian was initially mostly successful, in this internal struggle for resources and the concentration on tanks for the fast troops instead of for infantry divisions is often cited as a superior decision of the Germans in comparison to the French decision to disperse many tanks as infantry support vehicles in 1940.

History didn't end in 1940 and neither did WW2. The actual history went on proving that assault guns were needed (and extremely successful). This was even acknowledged and understood by Guderian, whose armour branch never got enough tanks (but tank divisions were in fact partially equipped with assault guns late in the war) anyway.

The optimisation problem is evident: Back in 1940 the decisive action was the armoured spearhead in the centre an it needed almost all armoured strength. The infantry divisions didn't need to advance much for early operational success. The circumstances were different in 1942-1945 and required a difference balance.

"Klotzen, nicht kleckern!" is a maxim, but maxims must not replace thinking. Maximisation and minimisation are rarely the best idea; we should always strive for optimisation.

- - - - -

The Western forces of the 60's to 90's had a very important balance problem as well. They had to balance between "line" divisions (equivalent to the vast majority of German WW2 divisions, the infantry divisions) and the mobile operational strike forces (equivalent to the few armoured & motorised German divisions of WW2). Eventually, the former atrophied and the latter formed almost the whole for Western forces. The operational consequences of having no forces to establish and maintain a somewhat stable line were probably never understood.

The new post-2003 forces of Western nations have partially evolved away from this problem, as even the armoured forces (supposedly "Cold War dinosaurs") atrophied, leaving us mostly with support troops, the traditional strength of light infantry (mountain, airborne) and some motorised infantry.

We were lucky that the imbalance of the previous generation of forces was never truly tested and exposed in war. Let's hope that we'll be lucky enough to never see the present imbalance tested seriously before we inevitably get rid of it

The Schwerpunkt concept remains valid, but it requires a good balancing in every application. Those other forces that are not focused on the supposedly decisive action are essential and must not be reduced too much.

Sven Ortmann

photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-139-1112-17 / Knobloch, Ludwig / CC-BY-SA
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Guns are (apparently) very sexy!

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... sexy enough to not even need a chick for success!

A few days ago, on 23rd, I blogged about the first heavy calibre machinegun. This particular model isn't well-documented in the WWW or in books, and I blogged about it simply because I like to point out neglected or underestimated stuff.

The blog post wasn't the normal gun documentation, though. I attempted to put the gun in context and point out how important it could have been.

This blog post followed a period of increased visitor activity which was likely caused by a few links and an improved rate of blogging on my part.

Then happened the unexpected (yes, it was still unexpected despite all my previous experiences); the machine gun text plus a link to it at the Firearms Blog pushed this blog beyond 1,000 visitors in a day for the very first time (previous record was 991). In fact, it even reached 1,065 and 1,105 visitors on two days in a row.

It's incredibly frustrating. There are so many blogs and websites about hardware around, and it' really no wonder: That's what almost the whole audience seems to want. Trying to be smart, uncover some background stuff, tactics & operational art, military history - these topics don't have remotely the same attention as simple guns, guns, guns.

If you want to start a MilBlog with many visitors simply focus on guns, tanks, aircraft, ships and bigger guns. It's a foolproof plan.

Sven Ortmann
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A Solar Powered ToothBrush!? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

There are Solar Panels everywhere : calculators, cell phones, etc. Now they are talking about developping some Solar Generated cloths! When will we stop this none sense? This is anything but ecologic, since all these gadgets will be throw away to the garbage in less than 5 years! If you think that a Solar Panel has a lifetime of more than 20 years, this is a total waste! Do I have to remind you that solar panels are made with alliminium, silicone and silicium? We don't want these to go in our garbages! When will they try to convince us that a Solar Powered ToothBrush is ecological? Please tell us what you think about this matter.